Financial Challenge Issues
with Erik Giles, LCSW (he/him)
Therapy for the emotional side of money—budgets, spending, debt, shame, conflict, and the kind of financial stress that is never just about math.
A surprising number of people come in needing help with money. Sometimes it looks like overwhelm around budgeting, expenses, debt, or whether you can afford the next step in life. Other times it shows up as conflict in a relationship, shame about how you handle money, avoidance around opening accounts or looking at statements, or the sense that everybody else somehow understands this except you.
I get that. I also know how frustrating it can be to ask practical money questions and get a highly technical answer that completely misses the emotional problem underneath. A lot of financial planning is not actually financial therapy. You may have gone looking for help on whether you can buy the car, pay down debt, or stop fighting about money and instead gotten a lecture about portfolio allocation.
That is not what I do. This is therapy for the psychology and identity around money. It is about understanding why finances feel so loaded, how those feelings affect your choices, and how to make your financial life more consistent with your values, your relationships, and the reality you are actually living.
Why Money Feels So Loaded
Money is never just math. It carries family history, status, fear, shame, power, freedom, comparison, grief, and sometimes outright panic. A lot of people were never really taught how money works, which means they learned about it emotionally before they learned about it practically. By adulthood, the whole subject can feel charged before the conversation even starts.
That is why smart, competent people can still feel flooded by budgets, debt, spending, earnings, or planning. The issue is not always a lack of intelligence. Often it is the emotional baggage attached to the topic itself.
Financial Therapy Is Not Financial Planning
This work is not about managing your portfolio, optimizing a retirement account, or replacing a licensed financial advisor. We can talk about budgets, debt, financial priorities, and the practical side of how money works in everyday life, but the deeper work is therapeutic.
That means we look at the emotional overload, the identity issues, the avoidance, the shame, the conflict, and the blind spots that keep the practical fixes from sticking. In my experience, many people do not need more information nearly as much as they need help relating to money differently.
I Understand Both the Practical and Emotional Side
Part of why I work well with this issue is that I have lived it. I did not grow up with everything explained cleanly. I had to learn the practical side and the psychological side together. I know what it is like to make financial mistakes, change jobs, deal with unemployment, handle divorce-related money stress, and hire professionals who still did not seem to answer the real question.
I also have the background to understand the nuts and bolts. I have an MBA. I understand debt, budgets, insurance, the order in which people often need to stabilize things, and the difference between a practical money problem and an emotional one. That combination matters. If you only understand one side, it can be hard to make real progress.
Money in Relationships, Identity, and Daily Life
Money is often one of the fastest ways to expose a mismatch between values and behavior. It can also expose differences in a couple that were already there. One person wants security. One person wants freedom. One person wants to spend to feel alive. One person wants to clamp down because anxiety is running the show.
Therapy can help you understand what money means to you emotionally, what role it is playing in your identity, and how to get your financial life out of the category of constant emotional emergency. The goal is not perfection. The goal is steadiness, clarity, and a financial life that supports your actual values.
What I Help Clients Work On
- Budgeting stress, spending anxiety, and financial overwhelm
- Debt, avoidance, and shame around money
- Couples conflict about spending, saving, and financial priorities
- The emotional impact of job loss, divorce, or major financial change
- Money as identity: success, failure, worth, and provider pressure
- Sorting practical money questions without losing sight of the psychology
- Building healthier habits around spending, planning, and decision-making
- Reducing the emotional charge around money so it can become a tool instead of a crisis
How This Work Connects
You may also be interested in:
✔ Couples & Relationship Therapy
✔ Career & Work Support
✔ Decisions & Transitions
Frequently Asked Questions About Financial Challenge Issues
Is this financial planning?
No. This is therapy, not portfolio management or financial advising. We can absolutely talk through practical money issues, but the focus is on the emotional, relational, and identity side of money that often keeps people stuck.
Can therapy really help with money problems?
Yes, especially when the issue is not just the numbers. A lot of money stress is tied to anxiety, shame, avoidance, conflict, family history, or identity. Therapy can help make those pieces visible so the practical side becomes easier to manage.
Do you understand the practical side of money too?
Yes. I have both lived experience and formal business training, including an MBA. I understand budgets, debt, insurance, and the real-world decisions people are trying to make. That helps me bridge the practical and emotional sides of the issue.
Can you help if money is creating conflict in my relationship?
Absolutely. Financial conflict is one of the biggest pressure points in couples work. Money is rarely just about the transaction itself. It usually ties into fear, power, values, identity, and the way two people are trying to build a life together.